Daniel Biss, Laura Fine and Kat Abughazaleh battling for hotly contested 9th District U.S. House seat
When a seat in Congress opened up for the first time in nearly three decades, 15 Democrats wound up in one of the most competitive races Illinois has seen in years — and now it’s expected to come down to one of three fundraising leaders.
Former journalist Kat Abughazaleh, Evanston Mayor Daniel Biss and state Sen. Laura Fine, D-Glenview, appear to lead the pack of candidates vying for the 9th District Congressional seat held by retiring U.S. Rep. Jan Schakowsky.
It’s the first time the seat has opened up since 1999. Before that, it was held by Sidney R. Yates for 24 terms, with a two-year gap prompted by an unsuccessful Senate bid.
The district includes several North Side neighborhoods, including Uptown, Edgewater, Andersonville and Rogers Park. It also includes several north and northwestern suburbs, including Evanston, Skokie, Glenview, Algonquin, Prospect Heights and Fox River Grove.
Candidates in the race have sparred with immigration agents during Operation Midway Blitz. Biss even came face-to-face with U.S. Border Patrol Cmdr. Gregory Bovino. Abughazaleh found herself under federal indictment for an alleged conspiracy to impede a federal officer outside the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement holding facility in suburban Broadview.
Abughazaleh and three others who protested there face trial May 26 at the Dirksen Federal Courthouse. She calls the charges “BS.”
Other Democrats vying for the 9th District seat include Skokie School District 73.5 board member Bushra Amiwala; former FBI agent Phil Andrew; state Sen. Mike Simmons, D-Chicago; economist Jeff Cohen; state Rep. Hoan Huynh, former federal prosecutor Nick Pyati; veteran Sam Polan; civil rights attorney Howard Rosenblum; Evanston resident Bethany Johnson; union organizer Justin Ford; Patricia A. Brown; and Mark Arnold Fredrickson.
Abughazaleh moved to Illinois in 2024. Her opponents have used that to try to paint her as an outsider. Abughazaleh said her grandparents were survivors of the mass displacement of Palestinians in 1948 and immigrated to Chicago. Her grandfather went back to the Middle East and brought her dad to Chicago. She recently learned that her grandfather was an aide to the late Mayor Richard J. Daley, “providing oversight against financial corruption” in the late 1960s.
She calls herself “the most progressive on foreign policy” of any of the candidates.
Biss is a former mathematician, state representative and state senator who was elected Evanston mayor in 2021. He ran for governor in 2018 and landed a distant second behind now-Gov. JB Pritzker. As mayor, he enacted an ordinance to curb carbon emissions and came up with a comprehensive housing plan for the north suburb.
He’s endorsed by Schakowsky, and he’s also among candidates in the field who have protested at Broadview. He has amassed nearly $2 million, and he says he’s proud that he’s receiving most of his contributions locally — trying to draw a contrast to out-of-state donors for both Abughazaleh and Fine.
Biss paints himself as both an activist and a lawmaker, and said he thinks the dual role is what defines him in the race. The mayor got into a heated clash with Bovino at an Evanston gas station last December, and he later described Bovino as a “condescending, sarcastic liar.”
“What I think sets me apart is that I’m the only candidate who’s fought and won inside a government and fought and won out on the streets,” Biss said. “I think we need both in this moment. I think Jan Schakowsky has been both, and I think that we can’t afford to compromise on either of those capabilities.”
Fine has accepted donations associated with the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, a pro-Israel lobbying group known as AIPAC. While the group hasn’t endorsed Fine, an AIPAC-affiliated super PAC is running ads to support her bid.
Fine has served in the state Senate since 2018 and previously served in the Illinois House. She first ran for office after her husband was in a car accident and their health insurance policy was canceled. She became an expert in insurance policy and brought that knowledge to the Illinois House.
“If you look at my 13-year record, I’ve brought Illinois from a state that really favored the industry to now one of the most consumer-friendly states when it comes to health care in the country,” Fine said. “And I want to bring that those skills to Washington and support programs like Medicare for All, so we can build a better, more simple healthcare system that gives everybody high quality care.”
Asked whether she supports term limits in Congress, especially after Schakowsky’s six terms, Fine said that while “it’s up to the voters” to decide, “every once in a while, I think you need some new blood.”
Contributing: Tina Sfondeles